


The way she dances

by BlickScondiblick



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Oneshot, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 08:14:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17783807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlickScondiblick/pseuds/BlickScondiblick
Summary: It's Valentines' Day and James has a very important thing to tell Lily





	The way she dances

**Author's Note:**

> this is a very stream-of-consciousness type of thing and therefore very plotless, but I wanted to post something for Valentine's day!! sorry this is so full of disgusting things such as emotions ew

It was hot outside, it was hot everywhere. Early February and already the winter seemed to have left its post. It was fine, James didn't mind. He loved the heat as much as anyone.

Mostly because it meant Lily pulled her hair up into a tight ponytail and pushed up her sleeves up to her elbows. James loved the heat but mostly he loved watching the freckles on the back of her neck, and the way her forearms moved, slowly, gracefully, as if she were a dancer.

She was, in a way. She was light on her feet, always silent when she moved from bookshelf to bookshelf in the quiet library. Her fingers grazed the spines of every book with such delicacy. Such urgency.

There was beauty in the way she lifted her hand and carried it to her lips, her eyes wandering on titles and covers.

There was passion in the way she moved. Like each second was a gift and every breath she took filled her with more life, more light. She danced around the library for hours before settling on a book to pick up from the shelf, and James spent days watching her.

He couldn't help it. He knew he was supposed to do something else, anything else than to watch her dance. But he couldn't help it. She was mesmerizing.

She always sat at the same table, near the windows. Sunlight curled around the angle of her jaw, dripped down the side of her neck, kissed each of her freckles softly. It was silly to feel jealous of something so immaterial, but James couldn't help that either.

He loved the pensive way she arched her eyebrows, that questioning look she gave the pages, he loved how her tongue stuck out sometimes to lick her lips. He loved the strand of her hair that always fell in front of her face and he loved the way she tucked it being her ear without blinking.

He loved her eyes most of all.

He loved the hope he saw in them, like the world wasn't falling apart, like she knew exactly how to fix it. Her determination had no equal but her stubbornness. James trusted she could do anything. She was endless after all, mighty and strong.

She knew pain and she knew heartbreak, yet she still stood tall and alive. She was still dancing.

James admired her, always from a far. He knew she couldn't stand him, and perhaps she had her reasons. He was too loud something, he could admit it. He was disruptive, sometimes disrespectful. He liked making heads turns and he loved making people laugh. He always sought her eyes whenever he did something worthy of her appreciation. Most of the time she wasn't looking, but there was always a slight smile she failed to repress at the corner of her lips.

When she sat at her table in the library, James sat a couple of seats away. He didn't talk to her, he never did, but sometimes when he would raise his head she would be looking at him. They would smile at each other, a shy, polite smile that twisted James' insides.

He loved her smile.

He loved her.

That realization had crept up on him, and it hit him like a punch to the gut. He loved her. He loved the way she twisted her hair around her finger and he loved the soft tunes she hummed under her breath.

And perhaps James was only realizing this now because it was Valentine's day and because love was all around them. Because pink paper hearts descended from the ceilings everywhere and the air smelled of roses and chocolate. James hated Valentine's day until right now.

But he loved her. He loved her, he loved her, and he couldn't stop turning the words around inside his head, because this was real, he loved her.

It was overwhelming now, it filled him with a warmth he had never felt before and the certitude he had to tell her. It was a terrifying thought. Terrifying but necessary, because he was afraid the secret would burst out if he didn't tell her, like his chest was too small to contain a feeling so big, so bright.

And maybe he was getting ahead of himself, and maybe she would turn him down, like so many times before, when they were younger. Maybe it would all go sideways, but today was Valentine's day and the future felt infinite.

James tapped his wand on his knee and a large bouquet of flowers appeared in his left hand under the table. Roses, red like the blush of her cheeks.

His hands were sweaty. He wasn't usually nervous, not for silly mundane things like this, but his breath caught in his throat when he got up from his table and approached her.

When he reached her table, it was just him and her. James and Lily.

“Hi,” he said quietly.

“Hi.” The look she shot him when she looked up sent his heart fluttering against his ribcage, before her gaze fell on the bouquet he was carrying. Then his heart stopped and her lips parted.

“Oh.”

“I- I mean, you don't- you don't need to accept them, I- I understand if you don't want them, it's just...” He was just embarrassing himself now.

“It's just what?” She was smiling. Softly. A bit mockingly, that was for certain, but there was affection in her eyes, and something deeper, burning brightly underneath the surface, something James could not understand.

He inhaled sharply to gather his thoughts, because she was looking at him too intensely and the words were mixing inside his head. He really should have practised this beforehand, but everything was so sudden and she was so beautiful.

“Would you go on a walk with me? By the lake.” No stuttering this time, not even a hesitation. “It's a beautiful day outside.”

Lily turned her head to look out the window and when the sunlight hit her eyes, James was a goner.

“It really is,” she said innocently, like they were just having a normal conversation, like everything about the situation wasn't new and foreign. Like she had been expecting for this to happen for a long time.

She got up and with a flick of her wand she turned the bouquet into a bracelet of roses at her wrist.

“Easier to carry, don't you think?” She winked at him and threw her bag over her shoulder before walking in between the bookshelves towards the door. Still light on her feet. Still silent as her balance shifted from one feet to the other, like a dancer.

Still mesmerizing.

There wasn't one ounce of James that didn't buzz with passion when she turned to look at him from above her shoulder.

“Are you just gonna stand there? I was under the impression that we were going on a walk.”

He laughed and she smiled. When he caught up to her, her arm slid comfortably against his and they walked together, arm in arm until they reached the castle grounds.

The sun was high in the sky and Lily's fair skin being what it was, they settled in the shade of a tree by the lake. James sat leaning against the trunk of the tree, Lily by his side.

They talked about meaningless things, the books they were reading, the students in their class, the prefect meetings and the giant squid that poked out a tentacle to greet them. They laughed about everything.

Lily had a way of seeing the beauty in all things. She held out her hand and showed him how she made flowers dance in the palm of her hand.

James had a way of seeing the beauty in Lily. A strand of her hair fell in front of her face and it took a formidable effort for him to not reach out and tuck it behind her ear.

The world faded around them, the loud, broken world, and it was just them.

They talked about important things. The war, their fears, their hopes and dreams. They talked about things they had never talked about, not to anyone. James told her he was scared. Lily told him she was too.

When the night fell on the both of them, there was just one more confession left to make.

“I think I'm falling in love with you.”

Lily moved closer to him and everything became real when she brushed his lips with a feather-light kiss.

“I think I'm falling in love with you too.”


End file.
